Simple and Sustainable Living in My 100 Square Foot Tiny House — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Hey, I'm Rob Greenfield.
2. 0:01Welcome to my tiny house in Orlando Florida.
3. 0:04This tiny house is a hundred square feet,
4. 0:07I built it for under $1500
5. 0:10all using about 99%
6. 0:13repurposed and secondhand materials.
7. 0:15While creating just about 30 pounds of trash.
8. 0:18So today,
9. 0:19I'm gonna give you a tour of my simple sustainable life,
10. 0:22and show you my homestead.
11. 0:24[Music playing]
12. 0:30So, as you can see a hundred square feet is pretty small.
13. 0:33It's just ten by ten.
14. 0:35And some of you might be thinking,
15. 0:37"Isn't this just a shed?"
16. 0:38Well, I designed it to look like a shed basically.
17. 0:42So that it would be within
18. 0:44basic building codes.
19. 0:46The most important thing is the bed.
20. 0:48A lot of my life is outdoors,
21. 0:49and this is really just about having a comfortable place.
22. 0:52Underneath the bed is storage for my basic stuff.
23. 0:56A big part of this place really is food.
24. 0:59It's for storing food and processing food and such.
25. 1:02Over here,
26. 1:03this is a bounty of pumpkins from my garden.
27. 1:06Here is the fermentation station,
28. 1:09making Jun,
29. 1:10which is like kombucha.
30. 1:11Apple cider vinegar,
31. 1:13fire cider,
32. 1:14honey wine and such.
33. 1:16Here I have my bookshelf.
34. 1:17A lot of books about how to grow food and live sustainably.
35. 1:21and then if we come over here,
36. 1:24a lot more food.
37. 1:27My project that I'm focusing on right now is
38. 1:29one year of growing and foraging a hundred percent of my food.
39. 1:33and so, that's really the centerpiece of everything that I'm doing
40. 1:37while I'm here in Orlando for about two years.
41. 1:39So,
42. 1:41fruits and veggies that I've harvested from my garden
43. 1:44and from foraging.
44. 1:46Up here, honey from my bees.
45. 1:48I harvested about 75 pounds of honey,
46. 1:52somewhere around there this fall.
47. 1:54I don't have a whole lot of possessions, I aim to live pretty simply.
48. 1:57This is all my clothes on this shelf and then,
49. 1:59some of my basic items.
50. 2:02So the desk I built out of
51. 2:03leftover materials from the build and pallet wood.
52. 2:0699% of this house
53. 2:09is built with secondhand materials and repurposed materials.
54. 2:12The floors, for example
55. 2:15were from a house that flooded
56. 2:17and this was stuff they were getting rid of, throwing away.
57. 2:20The bed is leftover wood and also flooring.
58. 2:24The burlap that I'm using for the walls
59. 2:26is from a leftover craft project.
60. 2:29One thing I should mention is the house isn't 100% done.
61. 2:33So a bit of a work in process still
62. 2:35but good enough to be able to show you the place.
63. 2:38Really important thing is my deep chest freezer.
64. 2:42This year I'm growing and foraging
65. 2:44a hundred percent of my food.
66. 2:46So this is a really important thing
67. 2:48for being able to store a lot of food.
68. 2:50And, that brings me to...
69. 2:53electricity.
70. 2:55My original plan here was to live off the grid
71. 2:58like I did in my first tiny house in San Diego.
72. 3:01But, with this project,
73. 3:03I found that it just wasn't
74. 3:05quite the right match to be completely off the grid.
75. 3:08And I'm only using
76. 3:10about a hundred dollars worth of electricity per year.
77. 3:14So, since I'm here just for two years,
78. 3:16it didn't necessarily add up to put a large solar system here.
79. 3:21when I'm using such a tiny amount of electricity.
80. 3:24So what I have is just an extension cord
81. 3:26that's running from here on the property.
82. 3:29So that's pretty much the inside of the house.
83. 3:31It's quite simple,
84. 3:32there's not a lot to say about it because most of my time
85. 3:35is spent outdoors, in the garden, in my community.
86. 3:40And so, let's move on to the outside.
87. 3:43I really like having an outdoor kitchen, because I enjoy being outside.
88. 3:47And also, when I spill things on the ground,
89. 3:49they just soak right in which means a lot less cleanup.
90. 3:53This kitchen was built using leftover materials
91. 3:55from the tiny house build.
92. 3:57and I have a light
93. 3:59that runs here on top, it's pretty simple.
94. 4:01Has a battery which I can either charge
95. 4:03using my small solar panel,
96. 4:05or it can be charged inside.
97. 4:09I actually have four ways of cooking food.
98. 4:11The first is a not sustainable form,
99. 4:14and the other three
100. 4:16are renewable energy forms.
101. 4:18So the first one is just using a basic propane camp stove.
102. 4:22I'm working to move away from that completely
103. 4:25so that I'm using all alternative energy.
104. 4:27The main replacement for that
105. 4:29is a home biogas stove.
106. 4:32So this actually converts food waste
107. 4:34into methane,
108. 4:36which can then be used to cook with.
109. 4:38And I'll show you that.
110. 4:40Secondly is a solar oven,
111. 4:43which just uses the sun,
112. 4:45which we have plenty of to cook.
113. 4:47and then third over here is...
114. 4:50my fire pit.
115. 4:51So if I'm cooking like, large quantities,
116. 4:54I have a five gallon pot that can go right on top of here
117. 5:00So this is the biogas.
118. 5:02It works like a human stomach,
119. 5:05in many senses, so...
120. 5:07one thing that happens when we eat,
121. 5:09one of the byproducts is...
122. 5:10gas, of course.
123. 5:12So how can you trap that gas,
124. 5:14and actually use it for something good?
125. 5:16how it works is you simply put food waste into it.
126. 5:20I get a lot of food waste from a local restaurant.
127. 5:23Simply put the food waste into here,
128. 5:26it goes into the stomach,
129. 5:27there's bacteria in there,
130. 5:29and the byproduct of their digestion is gas.
131. 5:33So this up here...
132. 5:35is a bladder that holds the gas.
133. 5:38It's pressurized to push it down.
134. 5:41And then just out the back,
135. 5:43there is a pipe that goes over to the kitchen,
136. 5:46and delivers the gas to the stove.
137. 5:48Another great byproduct of this system
138. 5:51is a bucket full of fertilizer.
139. 5:53Really nutritious for the plants.
140. 5:56So here's the sink,
141. 5:57it's extremely simple.
142. 5:59This is a 55-gallon barrel in the back,
143. 6:02and that holds rainwater.
144. 6:04and then,
145. 6:05it's just gravity fed.
146. 6:07I use a biodegradable...
147. 6:10grey water safe soap,
148. 6:12so that,
149. 6:13this water doesn't have to go to a sewage treatment plant.
150. 6:17Instead, what happens
151. 6:19is it goes just down the drain, and then there's a tube,
152. 6:22that just goes out the back
153. 6:24and then back there, I have bananas.
154. 6:27which are really water loving plants.
155. 6:30So this water,
156. 6:32all the water that goes through the sink,
157. 6:34doesn't go off site to a waste treatment plant.
158. 6:37Instead it actually grows food on site.
159. 6:40Also back there,
160. 6:41I have my compost bin.
161. 6:43The reason I really like my compost bin...
162. 6:45right there is I can actually toss food in
163. 6:48standing right here, so it's really easy to access.
164. 6:51So, I create...
165. 6:52very minimal garbage.
166. 6:54The little bit of actual trash that I do create,
167. 6:56I just put in the trash can of the property.
168. 7:00But mostly,
169. 7:01food waste, yard waste,
170. 7:04paper, cardboard,
171. 7:05all of that can go right into the compost bin,
172. 7:07and that is used to grow food,
173. 7:11rather than be somebody else's problem.
174. 7:15Also here...
175. 7:16is my drinking water, so...
176. 7:20It's a pretty great system, it's called a Berkey.
177. 7:22And this can be used for purifying rainwater,
178. 7:26water from lakes and rivers, or city water.
179. 7:29I have my rainwater barrels right here,
180. 7:33behind the house.
181. 7:36I simply stick a pitcher down here,
182. 7:39and then my rainwater is purified...
183. 7:45to be delicious and great for drinking.
184. 7:48Rainwater harvesting is very easy,
185. 7:50not complicated at all.
186. 7:53Water just falls down onto the roof
187. 7:55into a gutter.
188. 7:57Instead of having a downspout, I have a rainchain.
189. 7:59The water just falls into this barrel, and then it's stored right there.
190. 8:03Really simple as that.
191. 8:04I have multiple barrels
192. 8:06and they're just simply connected by a pipe.
193. 8:09So this might be the part of my homestead that I'm the most excited to show you.
194. 8:12This is a 100% closed-loop composting toilet system.
195. 8:19You have two toilets,
196. 8:20this one for going pee, and this one for going poop.
197. 8:23Pee is a bucket, a five-gallon bucket under here
198. 8:27that's filled with water.
199. 8:28It's used for about a day,
200. 8:30and then basically the pee is diluted
201. 8:32by about a 10 to 1 ratio.
202. 8:34that water is then simply dumped
203. 8:36onto fruit trees, bushes and such to grow food.
204. 8:40Poop goes into this one.
205. 8:42How it works is you simply sit down like you would on any other toilet.
206. 8:46After you go, instead of flushing,
207. 8:48you simply add sawdust to cover it up.
208. 8:51And it's amazing that...
209. 8:53that all you need to do is cover it up,
210. 8:55and then there's no smell.
211. 8:57Instead of buying toilet paper,
212. 9:00I grow my toilet paper right here on site.
213. 9:03This is called the blue spur flower.
214. 9:05It's in the mint family.
215. 9:07So it's got a great smell,
216. 9:09and it's ridiculously soft,
217. 9:11I mean...
218. 9:12That is just wonderful!
219. 9:15So, that is then composted as well.
220. 9:19The poop goes into these 55-gallon drums
221. 9:22where it's then composted for a year,
222. 9:25to make it completely safe,
223. 9:27and then it's used on fruit trees to grow fruit.
224. 9:30So this is a 100% closed-loop
225. 9:32compost toilet system
226. 9:33that doesn't create any problems for anyone else
227. 9:36and instead, makes fertility.
228. 9:39So because the property owner's roof is much larger,
229. 9:42I also harvest rainwater off of their roof.
230. 9:45I have two 275 gallon totes.
231. 9:48This is used for...
232. 9:49watering the garden, for filling up the barrel...
233. 9:52at the sink, and for showering. This is my shower right here.
234. 9:57Works pretty simply, I have a five gallon bucket down here,
235. 10:00that I fill up.
236. 10:01And then, that just goes right over and it's just a little hand...
237. 10:04a handheld shower,
238. 10:06using rainwater and honestly I love it.
239. 10:10To me showering rainwater is one of the...
240. 10:12one of the greatest ways to shower.
241. 10:14A little bit about...
242. 10:16transportation, how I get around.
243. 10:19So I don't have a car or a driver's license.
244. 10:21I have a bicycle and I use that
245. 10:23to go almost everywhere that I need to go in Orlando.
246. 10:27And then I also have a bicycle trailer.
247. 10:29And that bicycle trailer can carry up to 300 pounds so...
248. 10:32I can use that for hauling lots of stuff in my garden,
249. 10:36tools or huge hauls of food.
250. 10:38I can also use that for furniture,
251. 10:41materials for the house, things like that.
252. 10:45And lastly,
253. 10:47let's move on to the garden!
254. 10:52So one of the most frequent questions that I'm asked...
255. 10:55is: do I own the land?
256. 10:57How did I find the land? Do I pay rent?
257. 11:00What I've done is a work exchange,
258. 11:02So, I met someone
259. 11:04who's always wanted to live sustainably,
260. 11:07who's wanted a homestead for 25 years!
261. 11:10and in exchange for me
262. 11:12setting up my tiny house on her property
263. 11:14for these couple of years.
264. 11:16I'm helping her do that.
265. 11:17And then everything that I create...
266. 11:20will be hers for the years to come.
267. 11:22So I'm helping her grow her own food,
268. 11:23I've turned the whole front yard into a garden,
269. 11:26and the tiny house, after I leave,
270. 11:28will be hers to use however she wants.
271. 11:31So, it's a... exchange
272. 11:33rather than a monetary transaction,
273. 11:35we don't have a monetary transaction.
274. 11:37Instead it's...
275. 11:38how can we work together...
276. 11:41to meet each other's needs,
277. 11:42and that's what my life is all about.
278. 11:45Reducing the ways that we have to work for money,
279. 11:48and instead, how can we work together
280. 11:50to help each other out.
281. 11:51[Music playing]
282. 11:54There is a lot going on here,
283. 11:56and I can't possibly squeeze it all into one video.
284. 11:59But, if you have a desire
285. 12:01to live in a way that's better for the earth,
286. 12:03your community, and yourself,
287. 12:05then I am here at your service,
288. 12:07and there'll be plenty more videos to come.
289. 12:10If you were inspired and you got something out of this,
290. 12:12then I would really encourage you to subscribe,
291. 12:15and stay in touch.
292. 12:16I love you all very much, and I'll see you soon.
293. 12:21Oh, one thing to mention,
294. 12:23this is a little... squatty potty that I made.
295. 12:26It's really...
296. 12:28it's known that...
297. 12:30having your legs raised at this angle is much better...
298. 12:34for pooping.
299. 12:35So, anyway... wanted to mention that.